Artist says she has 7 registered guns in her studio, is victim of "bogus landlord-tenant dispute" at Hoboken's Monroe Center

Katie Colaneri/The Jersey JournalThe Jersey City Emergency Services team prepares to enter the Monroe Center in Hoboken to search a fifth floor art studio for weapons.

Artist and Monroe Center tenant Nina Akai was being evicted today from her studio space - where she said she keeps seven registered guns - in what she called a "bogus landlord-tenant dispute."

When Hoboken Now arrived on the scene, Akai was outside the building and was being questioned by police on a bench outside of The Cheese Store.

Meanwhile, a team of officers from the Jersey City Emergency Services Unit went into the Monroe Center next door to investigate her fifth floor studio.

Police had received a call around 1 p.m. this afternoon that Akai told her landlord she had weapons and was refusing to leave the studio.

"This is insane. I need to call an attorney," she told the officers.

The Emergency Services team emerged from the building almost an hour later, allegedly having drilled off the locks in her doors to get inside and search the 7,000 square-foot studio.

At that time, Akai explained that she and her husband, who filed for divorce in early 2007, had recently submitted evidence with the Hudson County Superior Court which implicated the Monroe Center's court-appointed property manager Josh Krantz in an alleged fraud scandal.